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Halfway between Brisbane and the tropics, the Cooloola Coast and Fraser Island between them cover over 190km of the coastline north from Noosa, forming a world of giant dunes, forests, coloured sands and freshwater lakes where fishing and four-wheel driving take precedence over the more usual beach activities. But it doesn't have to be a macho tangle with the elements: for once it's relatively easy and inexpensive to hire tents and a 4WD and set off to explore in some comfort. Europeans were initially unimpressed with this part of the coast, but abundant fresh water, seafood and plants must have supported a very healthy Aboriginal population ; campfires along the beach allowed Matthew Flinders to navigate Fraser Island at night in 1802. Flinders labelled the region as "the Great Sandy Peninsula " on his maps, though he suspected that Fraser Island was in fact separated from the mainland. The Queensland government declared the area an Aboriginal reserve in the early 1860s but, with the discovery of gold at Gympie in 1867, Europeans flocked into the region in their thousands. This influx, and the economic boom that went with it, saved the fledgling Queensland from bankruptcy, but brought the usual racial conflicts, and the reserve gradually became little more than a holding pen for tribal survivors from all over the state. They were devastated by disease, and the last few were relocated to other reserves around Queensland at the start of the twentieth century so the area could be opened up for recreation. Sand mining and logging are other incendiary topics here and there's a predictable split between conservationists and those people who count on local industries for their livelihood. Forestry is a particularly bitter issue; the inland town of Maryborough was built on timber felling, and logging bans have aroused fury at what is seen as a sell-out to the Green movement. Locals, too, once drawn to the area for its natural appeal, now feel crowded out by regulations made to protect the coast from overuse by 4WDs and by drunken campers leaving piles of garbage behind them. While it's unlikely that any of this will have a negative impact on a brief visit, a balance between protection and "development" - a word with almost religious connotations in Queensland - is far from being established.
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